Describes the life of the sharecroppers' son who became an Olympic legend and challenged Hitler's dream of Aryan superiority.

A biography of famous African-American runner Jesse Owens.

Shares the story of how Lucile Godbold qualified for the first Women's Olympics but had no money to go, so her college classmates helped raise money to send her to Paris where she won the gold medal.

A biography of the African-American woman who overcame crippling polio as a child to become the first woman to win three gold medals in track in a single Olympics.

"In 1968, perhaps the finest US Olympic men's track-and-field team ever stirred the world in unprecedented ways, among them the victory stand black rights protest by Tommie Smith and John Carlos in Mexico City. But in competition no single athlete mirrored the free-thinking '60s better than Dick Fosbury, a failed prep high jumper who invented an offbeat style that ultimately won him a gold medal and revolutionized the event. No jumpers today use any...

This New York Times–bestselling author’s account of the 1936 Olympics in Berlin offers a “vivid portrait not just of Owens but of ’30s Germany and America” (Sports Illustrated).
 
At the 1936 Olympics, against a backdrop of swastikas and goose-stepping storm troopers, an African American son of sharecroppers won a staggering four gold medals, single-handedly falsifying Hitler’s...

Miss Garrett's classroom is like every other at our school. White kids sit on one side and black kids on the other. I'm one of the few middle-rowers who split the difference. Sixth-grader Lu Olivera just wants to keep her head down and get along with everyone in her class. Trouble is, Lu's old friends have been changing lately - acting boy crazy and making snide remarks about Lu's newfound talent for running track. Lu's secret hope for a new friend...

"Seen around the world, John Carlos and Tommie Smith's Black Power salute on the 1968 Olympic podium sparked controversy and career fallout. Yet their show of defiance remains one of the most iconic images of Olympic history and the Black Power movement. Here is the remarkable story of one of the men behind the salute, lifelong activist John Carlos"-- Provided by publisher.

"This is the true story of Jean-Baptiste Alaize. Now an exceptional sprinter and long jumper, Jean-Baptiste lost his right leg when he was just three years old during the civil war in Burundi. When he met his adoptive dad, Robert, Jean-Baptiste had never seen a white man before. But they bonded over the fact that his dad too had lost his right leg in an accident years before. Through the story of this extraordinary athlete, The Long Jump tackles themes...

"Sprinter, long jumper, and Paralympian Scout Bassett shares the lessons she's learned battling the toughest challenges facing young women today. As an infant in China, Scout Bassett was the victim of a fire, causing her to lose her right leg. She spent the next seven years in an orphanage, before being adopted and whisked away to the United States, where she felt foreign in every way. Though she defied the odds and became a gold medalist and world-record...